1. Reading Comprehension
Parents and teachers need to explicitly teach reading comprehension skills while at the same time encouraging young readers to keep practicing and honing their skills.

2. Explicit Varied Teaching
Reading comprehension must be explicitly taught
They need a variety of texts
Teachers work
Whole class
Small group
One to One
Parents Model at home
Real Life: Newspapers, Internet, books for pleasure
Reading with their children
Reading to their children

3. Comprehension Strategies
Questioning
Before reading – making predictions and activate prior knowledge.
During reading – ask questions to check for understanding or misunderstandings (Who, What, Where, When, How, Why)
Ask questions to guide students to make inferences.
Ask questions to guide students in analyzing text
Have students give proof by citing evidence in text

4. Vocabulary Instruction
Formal instruction by teachers
Informal instruction by parents
Instruction on words before they read or as they read
Helping them use context clues (words or pictures in text to determine the meaning)
Teaching basic roots, prefixes and suffixes
Exposure to words and their meanings

5. Monitoring Young readers must learn to monitor their comprehension.
They must learn to “check in” with themselves for understanding
Adults help children to develop strategies
Activate prior knowledge
Read and reread
Ask themselves questions while reading
Stop and jot
Use text structure for meaning

6. Summarizing
Young readers must develop the ability to summarize what they have read.
They need to be able to state in order key events, ideas, details, and explain the big idea of what they are reading.

7. Focus and Attention Young readers must learn to focus their attention.
They must become fluent readers before they can attend to comprehension.
Too much time spent on decoding distracts from their ability to pay attention to comprehension.
Students will need to stop periodically and summarize what they have read.

8. Motivation Encouragement for all their reading
Demonstrate an enthusiasm for reading
Show excitement for your own reading and theirs
Help choosing books that are at a child’s interest
Choosing books that are “doable” for students
Books should be at their level or just above their independent level if you are helping them

9. Strategies to Help Comprehension
YouTube video -
Making sense of Informational Text

10. English Language Arts RL3
Kindergarten
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
First Grade
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
Second Grade
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

11. English Language Arts RL3
Third Grade
Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events
Fourth Grade
Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

12. English Language Arts RL3
Fifth Grade
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
Sixth Grade
Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

13. English Language Arts RI3
Kindergarten
With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
First Grade
Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
Second Grade
Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.

14. English Language Arts RI3
Third Grade
Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
Fourth Grade
Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.

15. English Language Arts RI3
Fifth Grade
Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
Sixth Grade
Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).